Saturday, August 30, 2014

Heat & humidity rolled in overnight & for me that meant a mostly inside day with the A/C & fans going. A wee bit of yard work was enough to sticky me up for a mid afternoon shower. There is one thing I do like about hot days though & that is the warm nights. When I took Pheebs for a walk after supper tonight there was just the nicest warm breeze blowing.

OUR BACK YARD

Spent a fair bit of enjoyable time this morning with my Rand McNally Atlas & my laptop’s MapQuest, Google Search & Google Earth. I always like plotting, planning & changing travel routes around. And then when we get on the road we often change em all over again. It’s just our way to travel………………………….

ARCHIVE MEMORY:: ‘My Dad’s Car Is Nicer Than Your Dad’s Car’……. I am reminded of the Chevy/Ford rivalry my friend Gary & I had going on back in 1961. His Dad had a brand spanking new 1961 black Chevy Impala & my Step-Dad had a brand spanking new 1661 black Ford Galaxy. Well, the rivalry between Chevy man Gary & Ford man Al was "on" to say the least. Never at a loss for digs at each other about who had the nicer car & which one was best we continued that Ford/Chevy rivalry for a fair few years. Down the street, Bob's Dad a spanking nearly new 1960 black Dodge Polaris but in those years the Dodges, along with their counterpart, Plymouth, were not really in the ‘cool car’ range for most of us. Chevys & Fords were the big guys & it would take the Chrysler car company many more years to get away from those cartoon-like & often laughable designs of the late 50's & early 60's to become the leading innovative Detroit design Maverick they did become in these past bunch of years.

--- But, back to Gary & Al & their Chevy/Ford rivalry. Gary was a few years older than me so had his driver's license before I did. His Dad let him drive the Chevy Impala so Gary would often pick up a bunch of us guys & we'd head off to places like the Drive-In, their cottage at the lake, A&W, or just cruise around the streets of Tavistock looking cool with all the windows down on freezing cold days. It truly was a nice car with it's peppy engine, snappy red & white interior, big space age looking dash, & what seemed like acres of glass all way round. I never told Gary how much I liked the car because that just wouldn't have been a cool thing to do because after all I was a Ford man right and there was no admitting to my buddy Gary the Chevy man that his Dad actually had the nicer car. And there certainly was no room for saying a Ford was better than a Chevrolet in them there days either. Well leastways not on our street. Gary & I lived on the same street by the way.

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Now, fast forward about about 40 or 50 years to where I can now clearly see the folly of our spirited rivalry in those old days. It was not a case of a Ford being better than a Chevy or a Plymouth being better than a Studebaker. They were all basically the same automobile. Not one was better or worse than the other. They all had flaws in their various models & they all had their good points. Some engines were better than others, some transmissions were really good & some were not so good. Interiors varied greatly but the basic materials were all the same. Car designs changed from year to year with some models being hotter than others for awhile as fads & trends came & went. There was no good or bad, no right & no wrong. No better or no worse when it came to the Detroit cars. It simply ended up with an individuals preference. In the end it all boiled down to a much simpler rivalry between young boys defending their Dad’s cars. --- Remember that old saying, "my Dad's tougher than your Dad," Well, that's where it kind of all began I think & still continues in many ways, shapes & forms to-day. Our Government is better than your Government, Liberals are better than Conservatives, Republicans are better than Democrats, our religion is better than your religion, Macs are better than PC's, peanut butter sandwiches are better than garlic sandwiches, dogs are better than cats, Tylenol is better than aspirin, Class A motorhomes are better than 5th wheels, my Dodge truck is better than your Ford truck, black is white, Wendy's is better than McDonalds, Ontario is better than Alberta, Coke is better than Pepsi, Alaska is better than New Mexico, butterscotch ice cream is better than maple walnut, or......... my Dad's car is better than your Dad's car!! And so it was, & so it still might be. You know, it all seems so rather silly to me now somehow............................

BAYFIELD’S INNER HARBORGROANER'S CORNER:(( A Few Cat & Dog Characteristics - Dogs come when you call them. Cats take a message and get back to you when they are good and ready. - Dogs look much better at the end of a leash. - Dogs will let you give them a bath without taking out a contract on your life. - Dogs will bark to wake you up if the house is on fire. Cats will quietly sneak out the back door. - Dogs will bring you your slippers or the evening newspaper. Cats might bring you a dead mouse. - Dogs will play Frisbee with you all afternoon. Cats will take a three-hour nap. - Dogs will sit on the car seat next to you. Cats have to have their own private box or they will not go at all. - Dogs will greet you and lick your face when you come home from work. Cats will be mad that you went to work at all. - Dogs will sit, lie down, and heel on command. Cats will smirk and walk away. - Dogs will tilt their heads and listen whenever you talk. Cats will yawn and close their eyes. - Dogs will give you unconditional love forever. Cats will make you pay for every mistake you've ever made since the day you were born.

Yup...My Dad was a Chevy guy and so is Dennis.To Den, FORD stand for "fix or repair daily". As for planning...we have most of our route around Florida planned and reserved. Not much boondocking room down there like there is in Arizona..I had my Atlas out just the other day..I do better with a book than a computer.

It's impossible to know things like this at the time, but you and your step-dad should have hung on to that 1661 Ford Galaxy. It would be worth a mint by now, none of the other cars from the 17th century have survived!

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 5 of them and use all 5.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a Nikon D7200 sporting a new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100 which now carries my Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-6.6 lens. I use this camera & lens for most of my candid people photos, birds, animals, bugs & flower close-ups.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.

-My Canon Powershot SX210iS is a point & shoot camera which I carry in a case on my belt everywhere I go.-My older Canon Powershot A720iS is the camera that sits close to my recliner for most of those doggy living room photos.